North Point Community Church Circa 1996
North Point Today:
Oh how things change!
I wonder where I’ll be in 14 years….what New Passion will look like?
Revolutionary Change Globally
One of our core values at New Passion is to create Revolutionary Change through our Local and our Global Influence. As I get the opportunity, I like to celebrate what others are doing to create revolutionary change in their sphere of influence. I’ve had the opportunity to meet Jon Acuff a couple of times at two different blogger events, we’ve not really had the opportunity to have an in-depth conversation, but from what I can tell, he is a normal guy, who God has gifted greatly, and he is using that gift to bring humor and insight into people’s lives. He started a website called “Stuff Christians Like” – If you are not familiar with the site, go check it out…a great start is his About Page.
Jon had a new post the other day entitled, “What If?” – In the post he made the commitment to use his sphere of influence through his blog to raise $30,000 by December 31, 2009 to build a kindergarten in the in Hoang Then village in the Phong Tho district of Vietnam. 18 Hours later, ALL of the money was raised! Yes, $30,000 in 18 hours! This in itself is an incredible and an amazing story. The bigger story is that Jon was able to influence revolutionary change globally through his sphere of influence. 240 children will now have a brand new kindergarten to begin their education in. God gave Jon a vision, he shared it and God used everyday people to make it happen.
Think…what kind of change can you influence locally or globally right where you are? How many of us sit back and do nothing because we are looking for this huge opportunity to come our way or we are waiting for someone to ask us or to hire us? Look at the influence God has given you…and use it. I close with Jon’s words of encouragement, “I believe with God, in God, through God, we can all be bigger than ourselves.“
Revolutionary Change through Water
I visited Iamsecond.com today thanks to my friend Dan who tweeted about a video for Sam Bradford from the Oklahoma Sooners. As I was surfing around the site, I found a video for Blake Mankin. Honestly, I’ve never heard of him, but keeping with Sunday’s theme from New Passion and Monday’s blog post on Revolutionary Change through our local and global influence, I liked what I heard. Here’s a little bit about Blake…
In 2007, Blake started Hope for Africa at his school. The club raised more than $6,000 by selling buttons during homecoming. The money paid for two wells in Southern Sudan that now provides more than 10,000 people with daily access to clean water.
It all started with Blake asking a friend “What If?” – I wonder how many people are creating revolutionary change around the world because of those two words? “What If?” – I love that Blake said he believes “Jesus is the Ultimate Thirst Quencher.” Blake is not driven for change based on a desire for personal fame, rather he is out to create revolutionary change so that Jesus might be made known to those who are far from him.
Go check watch Blake’s video on Iamsecond.com HERE. You can also follow Blake on Twitter HERE. You can help Blake create Revolutionary Change through Water HERE by donating to his fundraiser!
Join the Conversation…Who do you know that’s creating revolutionary change either locally or globally?
Revolutionary Change
Sunday we complete week 5 of our Rediscover Church series at New Passion. This week we discussed how we value creating Revolutionary Change through our Local and Global Influence.
We focused on 3 main questions after looking at 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
#1 What am I Becoming? – Paul said he became all things to all people. We looked at the story of Dorothy from Entertaining Angels and how she chose to live poor in order to reach the poor, the homeless, the prostitutes, and the drug addicts. Her effort to create Revolutionary Change required that she bring herself on the level of the people she reached out to versus elevating herself above them.
#2 What is my Motive? Paul said he made every effort to reach out to those who were different than him and to become like them for one reason…to lead them to a loving relationship with Christ. His goal was not to become famous or to build his own following, his motive was to lead people to Christ.
#3 What am I Changing? Paul and Dorothy alike saw people embrace their vision of Revolutionary Change and they too took action. Change can only happen if we decide to start influencing the change.
I was reminded of the trip I took with a former church after Katrina hit Biloxi, Mississippi. It started with a simple idea of taking water down to the victims, within a few hours we were on the road with water and a few groceries in hand to do what we could, our desire to be involved led into 4 total trips, three to Biloxi and one to Texas. I’ve posted video of our first trip and our second trip. The video from trip #1 is 18 minutes long. We used it as a part of the following Sunday’s message to show the need in the area, the second trip is the relief trip we took our church on. We were literally larger than the Red Cross relief effort in the same area. The point is this, what may start as a small idea or a small effort, God can use for Revolutionary Change in the life of those you are investing in and influencing for Christ.
Katrina Relief Trip #1 from Nick Carnes on Vimeo.
Katrina Relief Trip #2 from Nick Carnes on Vimeo.
Join the Conversation…How are you participating in creating Revolutionary Change? What are your dreams to see Revolutionary Change happen in our world?
Get Reel: Rambo (Sunday’s Message)
Thanks to all who prayed for me this past Sunday as I preached in an Adult service for the first time in 2 years. Yes, I was nervous. Yes, I was worried that I would go over my given time…All a perfect recipe for a disaster. So, who knows the outcome, except Christ and those who heard the message. I had some positive remarks, a few people who conveyed they needed the message at that exact time in their life, and then Chuck emailed me and reported HERE that we had two people mark their communication card that they received Christ in the service. So regardless of how I feel about the message, my main prayer is that the Lord used it in people’s lives.
I am posing the MP3 of the message HERE – the sound is not very good on the recording (Update: I’ve had a few people say it does not sound the same as it did live…its too loud – plus some Firefox users have had some downloading issues). We are doing a Summer series called Get Reel where we are doing messages around Movie Blockbusters, I did my message from Rambo, here are a few things you may need to know:
#1 I opened with this clip, so you may want to view it before listening…it may put some of what I was saying into perspective:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-3BgQOusD8]
#2 When I refer to a monopoly faith I was using these as a visual aid (my hot wife made them), sometimes I said some things and was pointing or referencing these so it may confuse you on those parts:
Finally the audio goes silent in one section, its because we showed this clip to close out the message:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtJO6iZUddQ]